The Piano Music of Frank Bridge, Vol. 2

Mark Bebbington, Piano

The selection on this disc includes a wide-spanning representation of Bridge’s piano miniatures from 1905 to the First World War and the years beyond. Written in 1917, the four pieces which make up The Fairy Tale Suite — the waltzing Princess, the scherzando growling Ogre, the calm, timeless Spell and the exuberant Prince are not children’s pieces despite the title and they are more parallel with Ravel’s Mother Goose. In Autumn (Retrospect; Through the Eaves) was written in 1924 and shares the same complex and troubled musical language as Bridge’s Piano Sonata. Miniature Pastorals (Set 1, July 1917) is the first of three sets consisting of three pieces each and they are very much children’s pieces. They were published without titles to the movements, but with children’s illustrations by Margaret Kemp-Welch. Etude Rhapsodique (1905) is a study in chromatic scales, heard in the fast descending semiquaver figure at the outset. Graziella (1926) is tonally elusive and enigmatic in its voice, and yet briefly rises to a surprisingly passionate climax. Dramatic Fantasia (1906), a Piano Sonata in all but name, only came to light in the late 1970s and is written in Bridge’s richest grandest early manner. A Sea Idyll (1905) was dedicated to the pianist Harold Samuel who gave its first performance.

Miniature Suite was assembled by Paul Hindmarsh from sketches found among the Bridge manuscripts at the Royal College of Music. Dating from 1921, they are similar in mood to the Miniature Pastorals but technically more difficult and harmonically more elusive. Finally, the Four Characteristic Pieces (Water Nymphs, Fragrance, Bittersweet, Fireflies) written in 1917, are harmonically complex and technically quite demanding. Fragrance was dedicated to E E B, the composer’s wife Ethel.